WEARABLE | Exhibition Artworks

Bandung | Yogyakarta | Ubud

My idea for the work began with a series of small drawings I made in Indonesia in July/August 1998 whilst I was living in Yogyakarta. At that time I was working on the initial stages of a curatorial project examining aspects of contemporary Indonesian art at a time of social and political change. This project has now become the international touring exhibition After 21 May 1998: Recent Art from Indonesia. I was also working with the newspaper Bernas on a series of pieces examining ways in which information is conveyed.

This was a very exciting but also confusing time to be in Indonesia. I had never visited anywhere in Indonesia before, and I arrived there in late March 1998. Soon after I arrived the first large demonstrations from Gajah Mada University happened in the street I was living in, Gerjayan Street, and a young man was killed. I think he was the first person to die in the student demonstrations. From that time on my dealings with Indonesia were a strange mixture of demonstrations and hotels, or heat and air-conditioning. I spent a lot of time traveling, thinking and looking. I would make small drawings on A4 paper, and file them away or fax them to friends or post them home.

I began to draw peci stacks in July in Yogya. Merapi was erupting, and I would often catch a glimpse as I moved around the city. It seemed to reflect the mood of Indonesia, and for me living in a city that close to an active volcano was a new experience. It also seemed to reflect in a physical form some of the social inequalities that I saw around me. The triangle is sometimes used by sociologists as a graphical representation of a bad social system, with many people at the bottom bearing a great burden so a very few people can be high up on top. In some ways this seemed to be the situation that many Indonesian people wanted to change, but change is often hard to achieve.

I used the peci for several reasons. Firstly because it is very common, and is not decorated or adorned. As such it is something which many people instantly recognize as belonging to an everyday Indonesian, but it is not like a batik which someone can say oh! that is Solo or Cirebon or Yogya.

But it does have Islamic significance, and as such does serve to identify the wearer. This is also part of the common experience of Indonesia, where the call to prayer is heard everywhere, and almost everyone adheres to a religion. Again as a foreigner living in Indonesia this is something which I noticed very much. I have traveled to many different countries, and Indonesia is the most religious place I have ever been. (I was often asked what religion I was by becak drivers or taxi drivers or other people I met. I used to give the answer seniman.)

It seems obvious to me that in any country that is undergoing profound and complex changes, where there is distrust of governments and many people are angry and poor and where there is also a great reliance on religion there is the possibility for people on all sides to use religion, ethnicity or other differences to vent their anger. This is already being seen.

Damon Moon

Alexandra J. Wuisan | Astari Rasjid | Choi Jeong-Hwa | Damon Moon
David Sequeira | Frances Alleblas | Mella Jaarsma | Minako Saitoh | Midori Hirota
Mongkol Plienbangchang | Park Hye-Sung | Ruswandi Abdul Ghani | W. Christiawan

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